New York Senate Bill S06288 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6288 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE March 7, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LIU -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring hospi- tals to provide language assistance services The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2 2803-bb to read as follows: 3 § 2803-bb. Provision of language assistance. Every hospital shall 4 develop a language assistance program to ensure meaningful access to the 5 hospital's services and reasonable accommodation for all patients who 6 require language assistance. Program requirements shall include: 7 1. the designation of a language assistance coordinator who shall 8 report to hospital administration and who shall provide oversight for 9 the provision of language assistance services; 10 2. policies and procedures that ensure timely identification and ongo- 11 ing access for patients in need of language assistance services; 12 3. the development of materials that will be made available for 13 patients and potential patients that summarize the process and method to 14 access free language assistance services; 15 4. ongoing education and training for administrative, clinical and 16 other employees with direct patient care contact regarding the impor- 17 tance of culturally and linguistically competent service delivery and 18 how to access the hospital's language assistance services on behalf of 19 patients; 20 5. signage, as designated by the department, regarding the availabili- 21 ty of free language assistance services in public entry locations and 22 other public locations; 23 6. identification of language of preference and language needs of each 24 patient upon initial visit to the hospital; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01392-03-5 
 S. 6288 2 1 7. documentation in the medical record of the patient's language of 2 preference, language needs, and the acceptance or refusal of language 3 assistance services; 4 8. a provision that family members, friends, or non-hospital personnel 5 may not act as interpreters, unless: 6 (a) the patient agrees to their use; 7 (b) free interpreter services have been offered by the hospital and 8 refused; and 9 (c) issues of age, competency, confidentiality, or conflicts of inter- 10 est are taken into account. Any individual acting as an interpreter 11 should be sixteen years of age or older; individuals younger than 12 sixteen years of age shall only be used in emergency circumstances and 13 their use documented in the medical record; 14 9. management of a resource of skilled interpreters and persons 15 skilled in communicating with vision and/or hearing-impaired individ- 16 uals. Interpreters and persons skilled in communicating with vision 17 and/or hearing-impaired individuals shall be available to patients in 18 the inpatient and outpatient setting within twenty minutes and to 19 patients in the emergency service within ten minutes of a request to 20 hospital administration by the patient, the patient's family or repre- 21 sentative or the provider of medical care. The commissioner may approve 22 time limited alternatives to the provisions of this subdivision regard- 23 ing interpreters and persons skilled in communicating with vision and/or 24 hearing-impaired individuals for patients of rural hospitals which: 25 (a) demonstrate that they have taken and are continuing to take all 26 reasonable steps to fulfill these requirements but are not able to 27 fulfill such requirements immediately for reasons beyond the hospital's 28 control; and 29 (b) have developed and implemented effective interim plans addressing 30 the communications needs of individuals in the hospital service area; 31 10. an annual needs assessment utilizing demographic information 32 available from the United States bureau of the census, hospital adminis- 33 trative data, school system data, or other sources, that shall identify 34 limited English-speaking groups comprising more than one percent of the 35 total hospital service area population. Translations/transcriptions of 36 significant hospital forms and instructions shall be regularly available 37 for the languages identified by the needs assessment; and 38 11. reasonable accommodation for a family member or patient's repre- 39 sentative to be present to assist with the communication assistance 40 needs for patients with mental and developmental disabilities. 41 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.